Steam generation is necessary in heavy oil recovery operations. This is because in order to recover heavy oil from certain geologic formations, steam is required to increase the mobility of the sought after oil within the formation. In prior art systems, oil producers have often utilized once-through type steam generators (“OTSG's). Once through steam generators usually have high blowdown rates, as much as 20% or thereabouts, which blowdown rate leads to significant thermal and chemical treatment inefficiencies. Once through steam generators are most commonly provided in a configuration and with process parameters so that steam is generated from a feedwater in a single-pass operation through boiler tubes heated by gas or oil burners. Typically, such once through steam generators operate at about 1000 pounds per square inch (psig) or so, or in some cases, up to as much as about 1800 psig. As noted in FIG. 1, which depicts the process flow sheet of a typical prior art water treatment system 10, such a once through steam generator 12 provides a low quality or wet steam, wherein about eighty percent (80%) quality steam is produced. The 80% quality steam 14 is about 80% vapor, and about 20% liquid, by weight percent. High pressure steam produced in the steam generators is injected via steam injection wells 16 to fluidize as indicated by reference arrows 18, along or in combination with other injectants, the heavy oil formation 20, such as oils in tar sands formations. Steam 14 eventually condenses and an oil/water mixture 22 results that migrates through the formation 20 as indicated by reference arrows 24. The oil/water mixture 22 is gathered as indicated by reference arrows 26 by oil/water gathering wells 30, through which the oil/water mixture is pumped to the surface. Then, the sought-after oil is sent to an oil/water separator 32 in which the oil product 34 separated from the water 35 and recovered for sale. The produced water stream 36, after separation from the oil, is further de-oiled in a de-oiling process step 40, normally by addition of a de-oiling polymer 42. Such a de-oiling process usually results in generation of an undesirable waste oil/solids sludge 44. The de-oiled produced water stream 46 is then further treated for reuse.
The water treatment plant which treats the produced water stream 46, i.e., downstream of the de-oiling unit 40 and upstream of injection well 16 inlet 48, and the type of steam generators which are necessary or desirable as a consequence thereof, is the focus the important improvements described in this disclosure.
Most commonly in prior art plants such as plant 10, the water is sent to the “once-through” steam generators 12 for creation of more steam 14 for oil recovery operations. When used in once through steam generators 12, the treated produced water stream 12F, at time of feed to the steam generator 12, is typically required to have less than about 8000 parts per million (“PPM”) of total dissolved solids (“TDS”). Less frequently, the treated produced water stream 12F may have up to about 12000 parts per million (as CaCO3 equivalent) of total dissolved solids, as noted in FIG. 6B. Often, it is necessary to meet other specific water treatment parameters before the water can be reused in such once-through steam generators 12 for the generation of high pressure steam.
In most current treatment schemes, the de-oiled recovered water 46 must be treated in a costly water treatment plant sub-system 101 before it can be sent to the steam generators 12. Treatment of water before feed to the once-through steam generators 12 is often initially accomplished by using a warm lime softener 50, which removes hardness, and which removes some silica from the de-oiled produced water feedstream 46. Various softening chemicals 52 are usually necessary, such as lime, flocculating polymer, and perhaps soda ash. The softener 50 underflow 56 produces a waste sludge 58 which must be further handled and disposed. Then, an “after-filter” 60 is often utilized on the clarate stream 59 from the softener 50, to prevent carry-over from the softener 50 of any precipitate or other suspended solids, which substances are thus accumulated in a filtrate waste stream 62. For polishing, an ion exchange step 64, normally including a hardness removal step such as a weak acid cation (WAC) ion-exchange system that can be utilized to simultaneously remove hardness and the alkalinity associated with the hardness, is utilized. The ion exchange systems 64 require regeneration chemicals 66 as is well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art and to which this disclosure is directed. As an example, however, a WAC ion exchange system is usually regenerated with hydrochloric acid and caustic, resulting in the creation of a regeneration waste stream 68. Overall, such prior art water treatment plants are relatively simple, but, result in a multitude of liquid waste streams or solid waste sludges that must be further handled, with significant additional expense.
In one relatively new heavy oil recovery process, known as the steam assisted gravity drainage heavy oil recovery process (the “SAGD” process), it is preferred that one hundred percent (100%) quality steam be provided for injection into wells (i.e., no liquid water is to be provided with the steam to be injected into the formation). Such a typical prior art system 11 is depicted in FIG. 2. However, given conventional prior art water treatment techniques as just discussed in connection with FIG. 1, the 100% steam quality requirement presents a problem for the use of once through steam generators 12 in such a process. That is because in order to produce 100% quality steam 70 using a once-through type steam generator 12, a vapor-liquid separator 72 is required to separate the liquid water from the steam. Then, the liquid blowdown 73 recovered from the separator is typically flashed several times in a series of flash tanks F1, F2, etc. through FN (where N is a positive integer equal to the number of flash tanks) to successively recover as series of lower pressure steam flows S1, S2, etc. which may sometimes be utilized for other plant heating purposes. After the last flashing stage FN, a residual hot water final blowdown stream 74 must then be handled, by recycle and/or disposal. The 100% quality steam is then sent down the injection well 16 and injected into the desired formation 20. Fundamentally, though, conventional treatment processes for produced water used to generate steam in a once-through steam generator produces a boiler blowdown which is roughly twenty percent (20%) of the feedwater volume. This results in a waste brine stream that is about fivefold the concentration of the steam generator feedwater. Such waste brine stream must be disposed of by deep well injection, or if there is limited or no deep well capacity, by further concentrating the waste brine in a crystallizer or similar system which produces a dry solid for disposal.
As depicted in FIG. 3, another method which has been proposed for generating the required 100% quality steam for use in the steam assisted gravity drainage process involves the use of packaged boilers 80. Various methods can be used for producing water of a sufficient quality to be utilized as feedwater 80F to a packaged boiler. One method which has been developed for use in heavy oil recovery operations involves de-oiling 40 of the produced water 36, followed by a series of physical-chemical treatment steps. Such treatment steps normally include a series of unit operations as softener 50, followed by filtration 60 for removal of residual particulates, then an organic trap 84 (normally non-ionic ion exchange resin) for removal of residual organics. The organic trap 84 may require a regenerant chemical supply 85, and, in any case, produces a waste 86, such as a regenerant waste. Then, a pre-coat filter 88 can be used, which has a precoat filtrate waste 89. In one alternate embodiment, an ultrafiltration (“UF”) unit 90 can be utilized, which unit produces a reject waste stream 91. Then, effluent from the UF unit 90 or precoat filter 88 can be sent to a reverse osmosis (“RO”) system 92, which in addition to the desired permeate 94, produces a reject liquid stream 96 that must be appropriately handled. Permeate 94 from the RO system 92, can be sent to an ion exchange unit 100, typically but not necessarily a mixed bed demineralization unit, which of course requires regeneration chemicals 102 and which consequently produces a regeneration waste 104. And finally, the packaged boiler 80 produces a blowdown 110 which must be accommodated for reuse or disposal.
The prior art process designs, such as depicted in FIG. 3, for utilizing packaged boilers in heavy oil recovery operations can be expected to have a high initial capital cost. Also, such a series of unit process steps involves significant ongoing chemical costs. Moreover, there are many waste streams to discharge, involving a high sludge disposal cost. Further, where membrane systems such as ultrafiltration 90 or reverse osmosis 92 are utilized, relatively frequent replacement of membranes 106 or 108, respectively, may be expected, with accompanying on-going periodic replacement costs. Also, such a process scheme can be labor intensive to operate and to maintain.
In summary, the currently known and utilized methods for treating heavy oil field produced waters in order to generate high quality steam for down-hole are not entirely satisfactory because:                physical chemical treatment process schemes are usually quite extensive, are relatively difficult to maintain, and require significant operator attention;        they require many chemical additives which must be obtained at considerable expense, and many of which require special attention for safe handling;        they produce substantial quantities of undesirable sludges and other waste streams, the disposal of which is increasingly difficult, due to stringent environmental and regulatory requirements.        
It is clear that the development of a simpler, more cost effective approach to produced water treatment would be desirable in the process of producing steam in heavy oil production operations. Thus, it can be appreciated that it would be advantageous to provide a new produced water treatment process which minimizes the production of undesirable waste streams, while minimizing the overall costs of owning and operating a heavy oil recovery plant.